TOM OF FINLAND
Finland, 2017, 110 minutes, Colour.
Pekka Strang, Lauri Tilkanen, Seumas F. Sargent, Jakob Oftebro, Jessica Grabowsky, Taiso Oksanen.
Directed by Dome Karukoski.
And who is Tom of Finland? Probably best to ask this question and to do a bit of homework before deciding to see this portrait of an artist. It is also the Finish nomination for Oscar consideration.
There are three approaches to viewing this film.
First, it is the portrait of a significant Finish artist, Touko Laaksonen (1920-1991). We first see him in action during World War II, the Finnish army supporting the Russians. After the war, he has a job as a commercial artist in an advertising company. He begins to do more personal sketches and, later sends them to the United States where they are accepted and he becomes famous and something of a celebrity.
Secondly, the film can be seen as a social study of homosexuality during the 20th century. Tom of Finland was a gay man, in the closet in a very strict Finland, living part of his life in a gay underground, finally finding some freedom of movement and expression in the United States.
Thirdly, the film can be seen as the controversial work of a gay artist, his drawings, their content, style, popularity in the gay community, there becoming icons. The film also raises the issue of the art, its expressions and influence and the emergence of AIDS in the 1980s.
Touko Laaksonen played by Pekka Strang, first seen as a soldier in his 20s, then moving through the decades and, with effective make up, the same actor portraying the artist in his 50s and 60s. He is not a man who is easy to warm to, personally. He has suffered trauma during the war, even to the killing of a Russian parachutist which had quite an effect on him and is shown in the film. He has bad experiences from the police during a visit to Berlin. He also experiences police raids on homosexuals in parks and in bars and in private homes. There is a certain coldness and detachment about his personality.
He lives with his sister, also a commercial artist, and when she takes in a boarder, he is infatuated but keeps undercover, not wanting to live separately with the boarder who is a professional dancer.
As regards the criminalisation of homosexuality and homosexual behaviour, the film shows much of social homophobia, expressions of hate, the sometimes vicious police raids and interrogations. It can be seen how the decriminalisation of homosexuality had a more positive effect in society and for individuals. (There is an amusing sequence when Tom of Finland goes to California and is present in the gay community when the police suddenly rush in – not to arrest the men as he presumes but searching for a thief who robbed a bank down the street!)
Many of us may have seen Tom of Finland sketches as illustrations but not recognised them as the work of a single artist what their original intent was. While he could not publish them in Finland, American magazines on Physical Culture put them on the cover and then they were adopted by the gay community. He sketched over 3000 drawings. They are of men, caricature sketches in the sense that they are huge chested, thin waisted, large buttocked, with prominent sexual organs and sexual behaviour. Tom had a penchant for uniforms, military (even the Nazi uniforms, but not Nazism), police, leather and bikie. They were widely circulated from the 1970s and used in all kinds of illustration, in advertising.
The question is raised for Tom when AIDS emerges and his sketches are criticised, singled out as promoting sexual permissiveness which leads to AIDS. He acknowledged this but then turned his attention to the sketches campaigning against behaviour which led to AIDS.
The film offers quite a deal to think about, the portrait of the artist, the social context in which lived, his work and the issues of pornography, but it does provide a look at transitions in the 20th century, which have had social consequences for greater freedoms in the 21st century.
1. Nominee for the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film? A story from Finland? A film about Western society in the 20th century? Sexual orientation issues?
2. The action taking place from the 1940s to the 1980s? World War II, Finland with the Russians? Postwar Finland? Work and advertising agencies? Homes and apartments? The background of the 1952 Olympics in preparation?
3. The introduction of gay themes, the personalities, the sideways looks, the military naked beach frolics, going into the park, activity, the police, the military in secrecy? The home groups? The police raids? Arrests? Institutions and processes for cures? Tom and the beginning of his sketches? Secrecy in Finland? Sending them to the US – and the Americans adopting the sketches? And the AIDS epidemic and the consequences?
4. The portrait of Tom, in the war, the battle sequences, cruising in the park, the encounter with the Captain, the discussion, the gift of the cigarette case? The war veterans’ pension? His moods? The memory of his killing the Russian parachutist? Sudden, silent, his sadness at looking at the face of the dead man? His sister, her comment on his loneliness? Going to the bar, the sketch and the man in the toilet, his being bashed? In the park, the encounter with Nipa, the police raid? His skill at his work, advertising, photograph compositions, slogans, promotions? Parties with the boss? His continued sketches? The discussions with Nipa? Sending them to the US, on the cover of the magazines, success, his continued drawings? At home, Nipa becoming the boarder? The relationship, the outings, their going to see him dance? The bond, the relationship, wanting an apartment together – with yellow curtains, despite their being for sissies?
5. The range of the men, sexual orientation? The captain in the park, the discussion with Tom during the war? The Berlin experience, Tom, guards, inspection of his cases, the hidden cabin for his drawings, going to the club, the men interested in the sketches, taking them, disappearing, the police raid, the interrogation? The captain and his being in the diplomatic corps, his helping Tom to get home? His marriage, the tolerance and understanding of his wife and her warning about the police, the house party, the range of men, the raid? Giving himself up? In the institution, wanting the cure, grateful to Tom?
6. Nipa, his life, dancing, in the park, the boarder, Tom’s sister and the attraction, with Tom, the apartment, encouraging him, his sickness, Tom returning from America, his death and funeral?
7. Tom of Finland and his sketches, his own name, the decision about Tom, the American looking at the envelope and adding of Finland? Masculine images, the counterbalance to the insult of faggots, uniforms, macho, bodies, organs, sexual activity? The exaggerations, yet the distinctive visual style?
8. The decision to go to America, the response, the covers of the magazines, the reception in America?
9. Doug, secretly looking at the pictures, the magazines, bodybuilding, encountering Jack, time passing, their sponsoring Tom, welcoming him, the group in Los Angeles, the community, the police raid looking for the thief, photographing the uniforms, the contrast with the police and Finland? Going to New York? The German publisher, going to visit him and challenging him, the money, the drinks, the publication of the book?
10. Tom’s sister, her devotion to him, the attraction to Nipa, her work, her art, Tom encouraging her? Cleaning house for him? Her reaction to seeing the room and the wall full of pictures, her disgust?
11. Tom, his achievement, acclaim?
12. The film as a chapter of social history, homosexuality, long traditions, biblical quotations, criminalisation, police raids, hate and homophobia, the gay community, affirmation by the sketches, the move to decriminalisation?
13. AIDS, Tom being blamed for sketches encouraging activity? His backing down? The posters for confronting aids, condoms…?
14. Tom and incessant smoking and information that he died from emphysema?
15. A personal biography, a social study, perceptions on homosexuality, men, relationships? Criminality and decriminalising and the changing in 21st-century perceptions?
